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New Platform Available to Connect Lung Cancer Patients, Caregivers, and Advocates

Published: Nov 09, 2018

WASHINGTON, /PRNewswire/ -- LUNGevity Foundation, the nation's leading lung cancer-focused nonprofit organization, today announced a partnership with Patient True Talk, a free patient-to-patient platform where patients and their caregivers can search for others with the same diagnosis or recommended treatment protocol to connect via email or phone. The new partnership supports people diagnosed with lung cancer by allowing them to engage with other patients and caregivers to share their experiences.

With this partnership, LUNGevity survivors, caregivers, and patient advocates have the opportunity to register for PatientTrueTalk.com at the LUNGevity portal. Patient True Talk allows users to create personal profiles and find matches based on a variety of parameters, including diagnosis and treatment, to answer questions based on their needs. A secure message can be sent directly to volunteers who represent the closest match. Once a connection is made, the two parties can speak off-line and form a supportive relationship.

Like LUNGevity's LifeLine Mentor Program, connections made through Patient True Talk can be vital to a new patient and their family and can help them navigate the logistics and emotions of a lung cancer diagnosis. Patient True Talk offers another option for people who prefer to seek out their own support online rather than through LifeLine's hands-on approach to connecting mentee and mentor. Patient True Talk builds on LUNGevity's current support services by providing users from across the globe opportunities to connect based on their closest situational match. This allows users to plug in to a community otherwise unreachable.

"LUNGevity is thrilled to be able to offer a new service to our patients that will provide peer-to-peer support and community," said Katie Brown, Vice-President of Support and Survivorship at LUNGevity. "LUNGevity provides important resources and robust support services to patients and their families, and Patient True Talk is a great resource to help them."

"Patient True Talk is excited about this partnership with LUNGevity," said Dan Engel, CEO and founder. "We hope that every lung cancer survivor, caregiver and patient advocate who is willing to pay it forward registers as a 'patient advocate' on PatientTrueTalk.com so that those newly diagnosed have the largest support community possible from which to find matches. I wish that I had a resource like Patient True Talk when I was undergoing my treatment for metastatic melanoma!"

LUNGevity offers the largest online network of support and in-person survivorship programs for all people affected by lung cancer. LUNGevity recognizes the need for an online support program that would offer patients and caregivers timely, one-on-one contact with individuals who have experienced a similar lung cancer journey.

About LUNGevity Foundation

LUNGevity is the nation's leading lung cancer organization investing in lifesaving, translational research and providing support services and education for patients and caregivers. LUNGevity's goals are three-fold: (1) accelerate research to patients, (2) empower patients to be active participants in their treatment decisions, and (3) remove barriers that patients face in accessing the right treatments.

LUNGevity Foundation is firmly committed to making an immediate impact on increasing quality of life and survivorship of people with lung cancer by accelerating research into early detection and more effective treatments, as well as by providing community, support, and education for all those affected by the disease. LUNGevity's comprehensive resources include a medically vetted website, a toll-free HELPLine in partnership with CancerCare®, a unique Lung Cancer Navigator app, peer-to-peer mentoring for patients and caregivers (LUNGevity LifeLine), and survivorship conferences. LUNGevity also helps patients find and navigate clinical trials through our Clinical Trial Finder tool, a Clinical Trial Ambassador program, and participation with EmergingMed.

Our vision is a world where no one dies of lung cancer. For more information about LUNGevity Foundation, a four-star Charity Navigator organization, please visit www.LUNGevity.org.

About Lung Cancer in the U.S.

About 1 in 16 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer in their lifetime

More than 234,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year

About 60%-65% of all new lung cancer diagnoses are among people who have never smoked or are former smokers

Lung cancer takes more lives than the next three leading cancers (colorectal, breast, and prostate) combined

Only 19% of all people diagnosed with lung cancer will survive 5 years or more, BUT if it's caught before it spreads, the chance of 5-year survival improves dramatically